Nederland, Colorado — It’s October 2026, and Eldora Mountain Resort is still for sale.
In July 2025, the Town of Nederland announced it had reached an agreement to purchase Eldora Mountain Resort from POWDR. They said they aimed to finalize the deal in October 2025. This then got pushed into 2026. In early 2026, the update said they planned to close the deal by the end of April. And now… you can probably see where this is heading.
The deal to purchase Eldora has yet to be finalized, and the agreement date to seal the deal has passed. While the Town remains in talks to finalize the deal, POWDR can now talk to other parties.
Denver Business Journal reported this week that the Town of Nederland was struggling to finalize the purchase of Eldora Mountain Resort. Correspondence with the Governor’s Office shows requests for money to help purchase the ski resort. The emails showed that the town was struggling to find the financing to close the deal. Colorado said they’re reviewing the proposal from the Town of Nederland.
Most of the purchase is expected to come from revenue bonds, which the town approved earlier this year. However, BusinessDen shared this morning that they’re $20 million short of finalizing the deal and are aiming to raise it through philanthropic means.
The Mountain Ear provided the most comprehensive update on the proposal yesterday. I’d highly recommend reading their piece, as it dives into the inside baseball of this negotiation process. To summarize, the town is working on restructuring the deal, but hurdles remain.
POWDR’s agreement with the town to negotiate exclusively with them terminated at the end of April. They remain in discussions with the town, but I imagine they wouldn’t mind a simpler sale process.
These latest steps mean the Town of Nederland has become more transparent with the public and the media about what’s in the deal and what they plan to do. Included in their proposal is a $20 million Capex plan to modernize the ski resort:
“There are major investments that we believe will strengthen Eldora over the long term, including the Jolly Jug expansion, an upgrade to the Corona lift, the construction of a mountaintop lodge, and jumpstarting summer operations,” said Mayor Nichole Sterling “These projects have the potential to improve the guest experience, strengthen operations, and create additional revenue.”
As for why they’re doing this, the Mayor believes they can deliver the best ski resort experience for the community.
“If I could be so bold as to say, I don’t trust anyone else coming in and owning that ski mountain and doing the cool stuff—doing the things that need to be done,” said the Mayor. “I’m taking a little from Captain Planet here, but it’s our powers combined that would make this a really amazing publicly-owned asset. And we’re getting there, we just need a little bit more time.”
Meanwhile, operations aren’t expected to be impacted for this upcoming winter. POWDR remains the ski resort’s owner and operator. Eldora’s projected opening date is November 13th.
Image/Video/Audio Credits: Eldora Mountain Resort, The Mountain Ear
